World Champion Hayman ecstatic with Gold Coast run
Recently crowned World Champion Dawn Hayman is still adjusting to life with her new title, but the Right at Home Jackaroo is as elated as she was on the final Sunday of the World Bowls Championships.
The New South Wales product saluted in the women’s triples alongside Lynsey Clarke and Kelsey Cottrell after their 15-9 victory over New Zealand at Broadbeach.
Speaking on Without Bias, Hayman reveals that it has been straight back to the green with district singles taking up her time and not allowing the enormity of her achievements to fully sink in.
“It’s unreal, I still can’t quite believe it yet and I’ve been straight back into bowls since I got home so I don’t think I’ve let it fully sink in,” she said.
“All of the family are really happy and so am I.”
Having strived to play in a major international event throughout the entirety of her career, going out with a gold was the cherry on top of a magical fortnight for the 26-year-old, who says the confidence continued to build from the sectional rounds all the way to the final.
“It’s everything we play for in our game, I’ve always strived to play in one of these major international events whether it be World Bowls or the Commonwealth Games,” Hayman said.
“We went undefeated in the triples and it just seemed to work, we had fun, were backing each other up and ended up finishing with a gold medal so it doesn’t get any better than that.
“We’d played six sectional games and just kept getting better as it went on, then played a really strong quarterfinal match against South Africa before a little bit of a battle with Ireland in the semifinal.
“That match was at Helensvale and it was windy and tricky, it went down to the last end but after that battle we really had the belief in each other that we could go on and win the whole thing.”
The final against the Blackjacks started in scintillating fashion for the Australian unit, racing to a 12-5 buffer before New Zealand mounted a mini fightback to get to within four shots with a quartet of ends to play.
Hayman and her teammates were able to steady the ship in the final exchanges to seal the victory, with the St John’s Park exponent putting it down to the team dynamic that she shared with Clarke and Cottrell.
“I think it was just having each other’s back,” she said.
“We had a really strong start and they did start to come back at us, but I think we knew that if we just kept getting in the areas and cutting them down or winning the end that we would feel confident that we could go all the way and win it.
“Kels played a few massive shots when it counted and that really got us over the line.”
Catch up on Without Bias via our Youtube channel.
